Developed by Drew Stone, updated February, 2013
You want to make a DVD of your movie that you edited in Final Cut Pro. You want it to play as soon as you put it in, with no need to push any buttons. This is how Drew did it, using a widely circulated document as a guide.
Open your finished project in Final Cut Pro.
Be sure to set the IN and OUT points on your timeline. This will tell Final Cut Pro what to export. To mark IN and OUT, press the “I” key when the playhead is at the beginning of your project, and “O” when the playhead at the end.
Send this selection to Compressor to export the film. From the top menu, select FILE > SEND TO > COMPRESSOR.
Add the video settings to the export. If the Settings window in not visible, from the top menu select WINDOW > SETTINGS. In the Settings tab in the Settings window, open the APPLE folder > DVD FOLDER > DVD BEST QUALITY 90 MINUTES folder. Drag the icon MPEG-2 6.2 MBPS 2-PASS into the area above where it says DRAG SETTINGS AND DESTINATIONS HERE.
To be sure that the compressed files are sent to the folder that you choose as the destination, right-click on the MPEG channel to set the destination as your folder for the final compressed files. You can either create a new folder, or pick one that exists already. I selected the folder titled “Menuless DVD Tutorial”. Select the folder only, and click OPEN.
Next, add the audio settings to the export. In the SETTINGS tab in the Settings window, open the APPLE folder > DVD FOLDER > AUDIO folder. Click and drag the icon AIFF 48:16 into the area above where it says DRAG SETTINGS AND DESTINATIONS HERE.
Choose the same destination folder for the Audio as you have done for the Video. Right-click on the AIFF channel to set the destination for the final compressed files. I selected the folder titled “Menuless DVD Tutorial”. Select the folder only, and click “Open”. In the folder you should now see both of your assets, the MPEG video and AIFF Audio.
Once you have setup the compressor so it has both assets pointing to the correct folder, click SUBMIT.
A window will pop up that prompts you to name your batch, this is what your compressed movie will be called.
This history window will appear to let you know that your batch process to the compressor was successful.
Now, open DVD Studio Pro
With DVD Studio Pro open, import the assets that you have just compressed. From the top menu, select FILE > IMPORT > ASSET. Your assets will appear in the ASSETS tab in the lower left window.
An IMPORT ASSETS window will open. One at a time, select the Video and Audio, and press the IMPORT button. The assets you import will appear in the ASSETS tab in DVD Studio Pro in a window in the lower-left of the screen.
Notice both assets, one for video and one for audio.
Drag the video asset into the video channel (V1) in the sequence window on the right; drag the audio asset into the audio channel (A1) in the sequence window.
Delete the MENU 1 icon, by right clicking on the icon and selecting DELETE.
All that is left is TRACK 1. Once the process is finished, this will be the track that plays first when the DVD is put into a player.
Click into the grey area beneath TRACK 1 and notice that a DISC window opens up with all of the details for your DVD on the lower-right part of your screen.
Select the track that will play first. Under the FIRST PLAY drop menu select TRACK 1, CHAPTER 1.
Once you set the FIRST PLAY as TRACK 1, you will notice a DVD play icon appear in the corner of the TRACK 1 icon. This indicates this track as the first thing that will play when the DVD is put into a DVD player or computer.
Name the DVD. This will appear as the title of the disc when viewed by computers.
If you want to preview the look of your finished movie, click on the SIMULATE icon to simulate the play of your DVD when a DVD player recognizes it.
Next, put a BLANK DVD-R in the computer. This dialog box will open, choose OPEN FINDER, and then click OK.
When you have inserted the disc, and are ready to burn your project, press the BURN icon at the top of DVD Studio Pro.
Your disc will eject automatically when the burning is complete. Enjoy your Menuless DVD!